Flip to The Pittsburgh-Allegheny Bridge, (the site of today's Smithfield Street Bridge), built by John Roebling in 1846.Close Window
Credit: Courtesy of the Pennsylvania Canal Society Collection, Canal Museum, Easton, PA
Americans were quick to adapt and improve technologies from abroad. Imported from England, the Stourbridge Lion in 1829 became the first steam engine to run on commercial railroad tracks in the United States. When it damaged the primitive tracks of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company railroad at Honesdale, PA, on its first run, D&H dismantled the locomotive and sold the boiler for use as a stationary engine. Soon, however, Pennsylvanians were designing and producing some of the nation's first and most successful steam locomotives.
